Exploring Focus in the
2011 MA Curriculum Framework for Mathematics
Exploration Activity:
Examining the
Critical Areas in Mathematics
April 2011
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Desired Outcomes
In this activity, participants will:
• Become familiar with the Critical Areas for
their grade level
• “Unpack” the big ideas, skills and concepts for
at least one Critical Area.
• Understand how the Critical Areas help
organize and bring focus to grade level
standards.
2
Supporting changes in practice
• The new standards support improved
curriculum and instruction due to increased:
– FOCUS, via critical areas at each grade level
– COHERENCE, through carefully developed
connections within and across grades
– CLARITY, with precisely worded standards
that cannot be treated as a checklist
– RIGOR, including a focus on College and
Career Readiness and Standards for
Mathematical Practice throughout Pre-K-12
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Critical Areas
• There are typically two to four Critical Areas
for instruction in the introduction for each
grade level or course.
• They bring focus to the standards at each grade
by grouping and summarizing the big ideas that
educators can use to build their curriculum and
to guide instruction.
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Example of a Critical Area
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Kindergarten
_______________________________________________________________________________________
In Kindergarten, instructional time should focus on two critical areas: (1) representing, relating, and operating on
whole numbers, initially with sets of objects; and (2) describing shapes and space. More learning time in
Kindergarten should be devoted to number than to other topics.
(1) Students use numbers, including written numerals, to represent quantities and to solve quantitative
problems, such as counting objects in a set; counting out a given number of objects; comparing sets or
numerals; and modeling simple joining and separating situations with sets of objects, or eventually with
equations such as 5 + 2 = 7 and 7 – 2 = 5. (Kindergarten students should see addition and subtraction equations,
and student writing of equations in Kindergarten is encouraged, but it is not required.) Students choose,
combine, and apply effective strategies for answering quantitative questions, including quickly recognizing the
cardinalities of small sets of objects, counting and producing sets of given sizes, counting the number of objects
in combined sets, or counting the number of objects that remain in a set after some are taken away.
(2) Students describe their physical world using geometric ideas (e.g., shape, orientation, spatial relations) and
vocabulary. They identify, name, and describe basic two-dimensional shapes, such as squares, triangles, circles,
rectangles, and hexagons, presented in a variety of ways (e.g., with different sizes and orientations), as well as
three-dimensional shapes such as cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres. They use basic shapes and spatial
reasoning to model objects in their environment and to construct more complex shapes.
The Standards for Mathematical Practice complement the content standards at each grade level so that students
increasingly engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise.
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Overview of Activities
Warm up:
• We will consider the impact of focusing our
teaching and learning on a few key areas in each
grade level (or course) (10 minutes)
Main Activity:
• In small groups, each person will search for
standards within a grade level (or course) that
connect to a particular Critical Area (20 min)
– Combine results and discuss (15 min)
• Debrief the experience as a whole group (10 min)
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Warm-up Activity
Please discuss in small
groups and then share
with the whole group:
• How will/could it
improve teaching and
learning in our
school/district when
each grade focuses on
a few Critical Areas?
Grade
level
PK
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
# of
Critical
Areas
2
2
4
4
4
3
3
4
4
3
Course
Alg I
Geo
Alg II
Math
I
Math
II
Math
III
# of
Critical
Areas
4
6
4
6
5
4
Time estimate: 10 minutes
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Main Activity:
Focusing on the Critical Areas
Task 1:
• In small groups, each member chooses a focus Critical
Area and reads the description in the Framework.
• Individually, read each content standard, marking the
recording sheet with a:
 √ when a standard strongly matches your Critical Area and
 ? when you are not sure
Task 2:
• Transfer individual data to the Grade-Level Recording
Sheet.
Time estimate: 20 minutes
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Main Activity: Grade-level Discussion
Group members share a brief summary of their focus
Critical Area.
Referring to the group’s recording sheet, discuss:
• Did every standard fall within a Critical Area?
• Are there standards that fall within more than one
Critical Area?
• Do all the standards within a cluster fall within the
same Critical Area?
Time estimate: 15 minutes
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Wrap-up
Whole Group Discussion
• How do the Critical Areas help organize and
bring focus to your grade level standards?
• How should we as a school (or district) use what
we have learned today about Critical Areas in
planning for the implementation of the new
standards?
Time estimate: 10 minutes
10
Feedback and Information
• To provide feedback on this activity as a
facilitator or participant, or to find more
activities and resources, go to the ESE’s
Curriculum and Instruction page at:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/candi/commoncore/
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